reinstall win7 from CD AFTER setting AHCI in BIOS

[DocDJ]

I have an Apricorn SOLO-X2 with SSD drive as my boot drive (cloned from my IDE drive). The setup required setting AHCI mode in both Windows and BIOS. It works great.

But NOW I may have to re-install windows (due to problems unrelated to the drive). The official installation disk does not see the SSD.

I think I can pull the SSD from the SOLO adapter and connect it directly to the SATA cables and install from there, setting AHCI off in BIOS, then setting it back on again in BIOS & windows after the install.

BUT, I'd like to know if there's a better (less painful) way.

 

[GokAy]

You most likely need the pre-install drivers. But I can't see such a link on Apricorn website. Perhaps you have a CD that came with it?

- Anyway you should be able to install Windows by removing the SOLO-X2 (and the SSD) and attaching the SSD to a SATA port.
- After the installation reinsert SOLO-X2 to PCIe port (keep SSD connected to SATA port).
- Log into Windows, drivers will install automatically.
- Shut down PC, put SSD in SOLO-X2
- During boot up, enter the BIOS of your computer and assign the SSD on the Velocity Solo as your boot device.

 

[DocDJ]

Thanks GoKay. I'm pretty sure that would work, but I wanted to avoid opening the system again. The Apricorn drive did not come with a driver.

My guess is that the install media doesn't understand AHCI, but I hope someone can tell me for sure that I'm wrong.

It's a good thing that my Acronis True-Image recovery CD DOES recognize the drive (though I might have created it after installing the drive). I have since created a Windows system recovery CD, but I don't think that it can be used for a system re-install.

 

[AddRAM]

Are the sata ports on the MB only sata 2 or something ? Are you out of ports ?

What is the purpose of the Solo X2 in this scenario ?

Apricorn Model VEL-SOLO-X2 PCI Express to SATA Card - Newegg.com


"My guess is that the install media doesn't understand AHCI"

What install media ?
Windows 7 ?

Of cousre it understands AHCI.

 

[DocDJ]

Are the sata ports on the MB only sata 2 or something ? Are you out of ports ?

What is the purpose of the Solo X2 in this scenario ?

Apricorn Model VEL-SOLO-X2 PCI Express to SATA Card - Newegg.com

The SOLO-C2 allows having a SATA-II SSD attached to the PCIe bus instead of a SATA-II port, thus hitting the PCIe bus transfer rate. It also allows connecting 2 such drives to the same bus slot (NOT a RAID setup, just 2 drives) both getting those rates. One drive is my boot drive, the other is the "My Documents" folder.

I have 10 SATA-2 ports. Yes I "could" have plugged the SSD's into them. But for $100 I doubled my transfer rates. System boots and I'm logged in in 30 seconds with my FTP and Web servers running.

 

[GokAy]

I have only seen RAID pre-install drivers so AHCI should work out of the box. Unfortunately, I had RAID enabled when I installed this OS so can't say with certainty (I used registry trick to enable AHCI later).

 

[Layback Bear]

Take a read through this tutorial by Bare Foot Kid and see if it is something you can use.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html

 

[DocDJ]

That's a good tutorial, but I already have AHCI on in BIOS and Windows. My PCIe-SSD drive is running perfectly (and FAST).

My problem is that I want to do either a Windows Repair (or Re-install) and my installation CD does not recognize the drive. I would like to be able to do the repair/re-install without turning off the AHCI.

I am trying to fix a Windows Update problem (in another SevenForums forum) and am looking ahead to what I can do if that doesn't work.

 

[GokAy]

If there are other drives connected, then remove them and try again.

You should contact Apricorn to provide either the pre-install drivers or the procedure of installation.

 

[essenbe]

The Windows installer will install in AHCI mod, with no problems at all. The installer has it's own AHCI drivers and only needs pre installed drivers for raid. The Windows installer is not your problem. It being able to 'see' the drive is the problem, and I would assume that is a driver issue.